At the WOW event in Coolidge, Resolution Copper gives students a hands-on experience in mine safety, including donning an emergency breathing mask.
Dream or nightmare. Either can come true when it comes to finding a career that fits. And if it’s the less desirable outcome, “If only I knew” often is the resulting response.
A surprise is the last thing anyone needs while career planning, especially when the journey begins at a young age. That’s where Worlds of Work comes in.
Worlds of Work — WOW for short — is a program in which students and employers connect at events so each party knows what it takes to jump-start entry into a variety of “career worlds” in fields such as science, technology, engineering, health and manufacturing.
Taking the lead in the effort is SciTech Institute, a collaborative initiative with the Arizona Commerce Authority and Arizona Technology Council.
But don’t confuse the student/employer interaction with just finding a job. “It’s a career exploration that actually has allowed students to learn more at an event about careers,” says Yvonnda Shelton, SciTech Institute’s workforce development specialist.
The groundwork for WOW was laid earlier when pie-shaped rubrics were developed to show how social determinants align with common skills found in pathways to different fields. The Arizona Education Foundation has trained Arizona school district on merits of different components found in the rubrics.
Meanwhile, SciTech Institute learned the state of Alabama had launched AlabamaWorks, a campaign to provide opportunities for training, education and employment to its residents. That prompted the team in Arizona to reach out to those organizers to learn more about “worlds.”
“The reason why Alabama decided to break it down (into worlds) was because they wanted students to see that there are many different careers in healthcare, many different careers in construction,” Shelton says. “So, every world would be their own career sector or industry. For instance, the world of construction then the world of healthcare.”
Whether in Alabama or back in Arizona, partnerships have been critical. For example, an early effort resulted in a job fair toolkit developed in collaboration with the Center for the Future of Arizona, Yuma Union High School District, Elevate Southwest and the Southwest Technical Education District of Yuma. The comprehensive one-week lesson plan was designed to help students engage meaningfully in career fairs and maximize their career exploration experience.
“We partnered with Yuma, and they did a WOW-adjacent event. It was more focused on a CTE (career and technical education) department in Yuma, so we had a CTE day event with them,” Shelton says.
But the toolkit actually has more than one purpose. It also aligns closely with WOW, the interactive career exploration experience brought to Arizona students through SciTech Institute with support from the U.S. Department of Labor Workforce Pathways for Youth Grant and USAA.
By building the preparation and reflection skills needed to fully participate in hands-on career experiences, the toolkit helps ensure students are equipped to engage with employers and translate those experiences into meaningful career planning.
At its core is a student booklet featuring questions that guide conversations with industry professionals and encourage students to gather information that can be used to update their education and career action plan, connecting each interaction to their long-term academic and career goals.
Rather than simply collecting giveaways or informational materials in the typical job fair setting, students develop essential workforce readiness skills through activities such as résumé writing, networking, crafting elevator pitches and researching employers before attending the event. By structuring quality career exploration before, during and after the event, the toolkit fosters authentic student-employer connections, deeper self-awareness and more informed decision-making about future pathways.
The toolkit has begun the transition. The first two WOW-focused events were hosted earlier this year and in 2025 by Achieve Pinal and Pinal Alliance for Economic Growth at Central Arizona College’s Signal Peak campus in Coolidge. In addition to creating awareness about career options while addressing workforce needs in the region, high school juniors and seniors met with industry professionals to learn how they can earn these jobs in the future, not just get a job.
As an incentive for all participants to stay engaged, Shelton and Achieve Pinal introduced a few twists to this year’s event. “We added a passport so students could get their passport stamped as they went around to employers just to make sure they’re talking to each employer,” she says. Even participating employers were eligible to win awards. For example, Resolution Copper won the Pride of Pinal County award.
What’s next? Creation of the WOW Teachers Academy, Shelton says. “What we can do with the job fair toolkit is present it to teachers, present it to counselors, and it helps prepare the students and the educators on how to prepare for a WOW event. So that’s how they end up getting involved,” she says.
There’s only one word for all of this workforce energy:: Wow!
